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UndocuTech: Protection for all?

In a world of Angry Birds and Facebook, technology brings us an app with the possibility to fight back against the polimigra and its horrible effects on our immigrant communities. I guess it was only a matter of time.

In a recent Huffington Post article, there’s mention of a smartphone app that would notify family, friends and concerned individuals of a person’s whereabouts when arrested. The thing that struck me about this is that it would be specifically for our undocumented brothers and sisters. Another way to look at it is this: Programs and laws have gotten so out of hand that we have to come to this to protect our communities. Between Arizona copycat laws popping up in our state legislatures and [in]Secure Communities spreading nationwide, there’s no telling how valuable this tool could be for undocumented individuals.

In Florida, an [in]Secure Communities state from “head to toe”, we are seeing a continued increase of deportations based on minor traffic violations. In fact, I am working on a case right now about a young man who was detained for driving without a license. [shameless plug: please sign his petition here]

However, there’s also something to be said about what type of person would use this “app” or in general, any app. Want to take a wild guess? if you said a person with a smartphone, you’d be correct. More particularly, a person with an smartphone that allows the usage of apps like an iPhone or an Android. This speaks to which segment of the undocumented population would benefit most from its usage and let me tell you, it’s definitely not the rural migrant communities. Most people that I work with are from these communities and don’t have the money to afford a phone of this caliber. So, in a way, nothing has really changed.

So, yes, let’s be clear, this would definitely help for rapid response especially if you find yourself at a checkpoint, in a raid or a traffic stop. However, we need to realize that it will not help all of those affected. My conclusion from all of this is that we need to stop the problem from the source and while it’s innovative and fantastic that we have technology on our side (because we need it), we need to be able to protect all of our communities and can only do that by ending programs like [in]Secure Communities and stopping copycat bills like SB1070.